Florent Manaudou Puts Maturity & Mindset On The Marseille Catwalk Of His Comeback [PHOTO GALLERY]

By Sabrina Knoll

Florent Manaudou crowned himself the fastest swimmer in the world with gold in the 50m freestyle at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Then it was silver at Rio 2016. Time to towel down, hang goggles up and call it a day in the fast lane.

It was not until he stepped away from the water and what seemed to be his whole world that Florent Manaudou grew up:

“I feel I am a very different person today”, he told Swimming World as we sat beside the pool of the Sporting Club Corniche, an historic location atop the cliffs overlooking Marseille on a sunny winter’s day.

Born of a Dutch mother and French father and sister to Laure Manaudou, the first Frenchwoman ever to claim Olympic gold in the pool when she won the 400m freestyle at Athens 2004, the sprinter reflects on how time away from the sport he excelled had graced him with perspective. Here was a side of life to be enjoyed, soaked up. He thinks back to 2016 in the wake of Rio and says:

“I wanted to play guitar, ride motor bike, have a beer with friends, not think about training all the time.”

It’s a story you hear from so many athletes: how putting distance between themselves and the thing they have been led to believe is the most important thing in the whole world made them realise that it just isn’t so.

The world kept turning for Manaudou every bit as much as heads turn for him whenever as he strolls by in a suit on his way to the next photo shoot as a swimmer built in a fashion fit to make a dolphin blush. He’s back home from his training base in Turkey in part for another pose at the launch of the Roadbook Crazy Print collection of suits for his sponsor arena.

Speed Interview for a sprinter: Sabrina Knoll puts Florent Manaudou to the test – 18 x 1 questions off 10 seconds.

A DAY IN MARSEILLE WITH FLORENT MANAUDOU

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During his time away from the water, Manaudou discovered that he didn’t need him to swim fast, train hard, miss out on other things he’d longed to do just to feel the buzz of life. There was no need to do fast reps, no need to feel his world might end if he didn’t claim gold, as he had felt in 2016.

When You’re The Last Hope For Your Nation In The Pool

France had been dubbed as “a new superpower in swimming” by its home media going into Rio. But day one in the pool saw the 4x100m free relay hand back the crown to the USA by 0.61sec, the 4x200m free relay miss the final altogether and suffer a meltdown as members of the quartet joined in the blame game that followed, London 2012 hero Yannick Agnel the target of some particularly pointed commentary. World backstroke champion Camille Lacourt missed the medals, too.

Florent Manaudou – Photo Courtesy: @Les Impatients Productions

All eyes on Manaudou. Surely the sprinter would save the day? Speaking in Marseilles, Manaudou recalls the pressure, from others – and self:

“Since my first selection to the French team in 2011, we’d always won, the relay or the 50 free or the 200 free. But Rio was difficult because we finished second in the relay, then there was an issue with the 4×200 and Camille finished fifth and I was at the end of the week and I felt a lot of pressure put on me. Everybody was like: You have to save the team!”

Then there was the self-inflicted stuff to cope with:

“It was just difficult because I was not really ready for these Olymics. My body was ready but my mind was not.”

Under brawn and deep in brain, the mirror told him that he’d already won everything he ever wanted to win. His coach back in 2012, James Gibson, had told him that every real champion had to win titles Olympic, World and, in the Frenchman’s case, Europeans. Says Manaudou:

“And so I went on and won short-course Europeans and Worlds, long-course Olympics, Europeans and Worlds, and I had achieved my target in 2015.”

What else was there?

Time to call a halt – move on. Next, please. He would not quit entirely, he has said after Rio. He just needed to step back from the drill, the drama, the expectation, the that started long before Rio, long before London.

FloMo The Baby Bro Of Laure

Laure Manaudou (L) talks to her brother Florent Manaudou of France during a training session 1 day prior to the start of the swimming competition during the FINA Swimming World Championships at Kazan arena in Kazan, Russia, 1 August 2015.

Laure Manaudou (L) talks to her brother Florent Manaudou in training on the eve of the 2015 World Championships in Gaza. Photo Courtesy: Patrick B. Kraemer ©

Because he was the younger brother of the great Laure Manaudou. Looking back, he said, he struggled with finding himself outside of this legacy. Says Florent Manaudou:

“When my sister won in 2004 all my coaches where like: ‘you have to swim the 400! Or the 200 back!’ And, I mean, I wasn’t bad at it, it’s in my blood. Especially at that time, I was a lot skinnier, so I could do it. But it wasn’t me. So I had to create my own space, my own bubble.“

The bubble was built for others reasons, too. He explains:

“I was a bit shy then, especially in English, but in French, too. I did not want to show this part of me.”

Manaudou skips along a timewarp from shy teen to the alchemy of gold to silver at Rio and says in excellent English:

“A part of me only just grew up after 2016.”

He played handball – and was pretty good at it – but as maturity set in, he has a sense of longing for the water. Was he really missing swimming that much? You bet. A switch had been flicked. He explains:

“But for me [this time] it was: ‘OK, if I come back I do it because I want to win, not because I have to’.”

Since his return, as part of Gibson’s Energy Standard squad, a man who loved winning but not so much the swimming of many laps in training the first time round, even enjoys training. He says he realised: “We are in the pool 320 days a year. If you just enjoy competition, it is not good. It is better to enjoy the whole journey.“

“Now I feel more open to the world because I can speak English and I meet some new people, I travel a lot, I can do what I want to do, I feel very relaxed.“

In a thread of thought comparing himself to the pre-break Manaudou, he adds: “I think I smile more.”

He’ll be carrying that smile to a third Olympic Games in Tokyo, all being well at French trials next month, now that pressure is something he feels he can take in his big stride as the underdog:

“I feel I can handle it better now because I take it a bit more easy. And: I am not the best now. Caeleb Dressel is stronger than me. Of course, I want to win, but it is much better for you if you are not the best. Because you can just get a medal and it is good and it is much better than if you are the best. Because if you are the best you have to win.“

Manaudou got to race Dressel during the inaugural season of the International Swimming League, the Frenchman racing for Energy, the American for Cali Condors. The league had helped draw Manaudou back to the water – and reaped fine rewards when Energy Standard won the first-season trophy at a Grand Final in Las Vegas.

As it turned out, Manaudou stood “no chance” against a Dressel in always-ready-to-win mode. There are bigger moments ahead.

Tokyo 2020, on course and not blown by coronavirus or rescheduled, will be about much more than a 50m freestyle: Manaudou intends to have fun and has even put his head in the ring for standard bearer at the opening ceremony:

“It would be a dream to be a standard bearer. It would be an honour.“

Swimmers usually avoid the Opening and flag-bearing because racing in the pool starts the very next morning and comes too soon for athletes who have to be on their feet until late at night and for several hours on end.

Pre-break Manaudou would certainly never have contemplated it: he’s never been to an Opening Ceremony. Now, he would like to not only be there but be at the helm fronting the French Tricolour.

It may not happen, says Manaudou, pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie among the favourites ahead of a voting of athlete ambassadors. There’s a slo talk of it being time for a female athlete to fly the flag, the Sports Minister Roxana Maracineanu, the 1998 World 200m backstroke champion, among those in favour of such a move.

A strong parti of the argument for having a woman flag bearer this year is to shore up support for the mission of Maracineanu and advocates for safe sport to clean up in the wake of France being shaken by sexual abuse scandals.

Post-break Manaudou seems to be comfortable with the prospect of losing that particular competition. Indeed, he is so relaxed in himself and at ease in his sport that he envisages racing on until a home Games at Paris 2024.

Visualisation has been. Says Florent Manaudou mark II:

“The best would be: Olympic champion in 2020 and standard bearer in 2024!”

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